'Spamalot' actress likes stage view better now

Abigail Raye stars as the Lady of the Lake in "Spamalot," presented by Civic Amarillo's Broadway Spotlight Series. The musical will be staged Wednesday and Thursday in the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium.

Abigail Raye may be stealing the show now in “Spamalot,” but not long ago, she was pulling up the rear.

Literally.

Raye stars as the Lady of the Lake in “Spamalot,” the musical adaptation of “Monty Python & The Holy Grail” that hits town Wednesday for a two-night run in the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Buchanan St.

The production is part of Civic Amarillo’s Broadway Spotlight Series.

But before getting the role of her dreams, Raye played the lead character in another national tour — but it wasn’t nearly as glamorous as that sounds.

Raye performed as the classic children’s character Clifford the Big Red Dog — part of him, at least.

“There are two people in the dog, and I happened to be the person who fit in the back,” Raye said.

Yes, she starred as Clifford’s butt.

“That was the best workout of my life,” Raye chuckled. “I’m a really petite, small girl, and you’re holding up about, I want to say, 50 pounds of this dog.

“It has zero circulation in there. It’s about 102 degrees inside, and we’re wearing the bare minimum,” she said. “I lost about five pounds per show.”

But in “Spamalot,” Raye is anything but the hindquarters of a crimson puppy.

As the Lady of the Lake, Raye swans in to belt out two of the show’s biggest numbers.

“I park and bark,” she said.

“I park in the center of the stage, belt my face off — quote, unquote ‘bark’ — and walk off the stage,” she said. “She’s simply there for the purpose of stealing the spotlight.”

The Lady is only an off-screen “watery tart” who throws a sword at King Arthur in the original Python cult classic film.

“It’s such a male-heavy show. There are five girls in the cast, and the rest are men. There’s a very high testosterone level, so I guess they needed some estrogen on stage,” Raye said.

Though her role is a memorable one, Raye’s actually not on stage all that much, and that’s just fine with her.

“This show is just so funny,” she said. “I never really get sick of it. I sit backstage every night watching and laughing.”

how to go

o What: “Spamalot,” part of Civic Amarillo’s Broadway Spotlight Series